COLUMBUS, GA – I wasn’t aware that setting your girlfriend on fire was such a popular option when ending an argument, but it seems like we post one of these types of stories every other month.
Joining the ranks of men who tried melting their girlfriend’s head is 35-year-old Robert Williams, a Georgia man who, according to police, doused his girlfriend with lighter fluid then set her on fire during an argument.
It happened after the couple got into a domestic altercation on Tuesday inside their Havenbrook Court apartment. While in their bedroom, Williams allegedly poured lighter fluid on 44-year-old Vallen Smith then lit her up.
Before the fire was extinguished, the blinds in the bedroom had melted and Smith was left with second and third-degree burns on her hands and face. She was rushed to a burn center in Augusta, GA where her family said she got out of surgery on Wednesday. Her last officially reported condition was critical.
Williams was arrested and charged with aggravated assault and battery. As someone who has spent considerable time in a burn unit, and watched a relative went through while there, those charges do not seem close to adequate.
If you are able to watch the following video from WTVM, you will hear some of the couple’s neighbors talk about the incident. It’s one of the first times I’ve ever had to turn on Closed Captioning to fully grasp what someone was saying. If you are unable to watch the video, I have taken the time to transcribe their comments for you.
“Yeah, I saw all the fire the fire trucks and stuff. After I found out what happened, I thought, why should it have happened like that when they could have solved it another way?” pondered Cornell Bryant.
Geayye Geoe echoed similar sentiments, but I thought he summed it up best when he said, “I feel like, if shorty was going to leave him, he should have just left, you hear me? It’s crazy how people is over these females, you know what I’m saying? Just move on, you know what I’m saying? She cool though. I like her. She my fam, for real now. That’s messed up about buddy, man. I didn’t even know they were fighting, you know?” he said.
Words were never so wisely spoken, Geoe. It truly is crazy how people is over these females.
Tags: Domestic Violence, fire, Georgia, lighter fluid, Robert Willimas, Vallen Smith
